In life, we often run, with a lot of passion and desperation, after the things we cannot have. They scream in us and through us, wanting to be experienced by us. We call them desires.
But instead of simply feeling what we feel in that particular moment and giving it space, we begin a grim fight to obtain what we believe we don’t have.
Our thoughts get caught up, we turn mentally obsessed, and can’t let go anymore. Often, this turns into an emotional disaster for us. Just think of a loved one who doesn’t love you the way you wish. Or the repetitive loops of experience you seem to be trapped in. Or of your youth sailing away on the next ship to Neverland, leaving you behind to grow old and grey.
We focus on the wrong thing
Everything is constantly changing; that is the nature of life. We are consciousness moving through the experiences of appearances, but we mistake these appearances for our identity. And then we suffer, because things obviously don’t go the way we want them to.
Our mind loves to cling to external appearances and succumb to the illusion of being able to control, change, and direct them. Our mind loves to play monarch. But our mind is not what we are or who we are.
The nesting of the mind — picture taken at the main station (Hauptbahnhof) in Berlin, Germany
With all the temptations to which this wonderful thinking apparatus so readily gives in, we forget our true nature and completely lose sight of what lies beneath. Then we spend entire lifetimes painstakingly searching for it.
Often enough, I think we have actually invented an ingenious mechanism — one that continually makes us forget who we are, thus keeps us trapped in the dream, the Maya. How else would we experience incarnation if even our body were not conceived by our mind and bound to our consciousness? Brilliant, brilliant, indeed.
Once the mind calms down, e.g., through meditative practices or a spontaneous change in brain waves, the stormy sea of our lives becomes clear, and we come into contact with the core, the source, and we remember.
So, what about the moving particles?
Of course, they are the phenomena, the constantly changing circumstances. When we learn to place our focus on what lies beneath them or at their core — and our core — which some, by the way, call God or the Source, then peace ensues. Quite naturally. Because we stop the senseless chasing and remain where we’ve always been, at the origin.
The trick is to live the connection to the core while simultaneously enjoying the moving particles. And maybe sometimes even moving some particles (in our minds) — that’s what we call creativity.
Have fun on this wild ride!
August 13th, 2025
The sun, the source of all life, shines in you — picture taken during my amazing time in Amed, Bali, in 2016, while living directly at the ocean, watching the sunrise every morning around 5:30 am
